The expulsion of Mexican peoples dates back to the 1830s and continues today. Mexicans are the victims of the largest mass expulsions in US History. Upwards of 1 million people were deported during the 1930s--60% of whom were US citizens. Operation Wetback in 1954 forcefully removed 1.4 million Mexican@s. DHS Reports reveal that over 2 million Mexicans have been deported between 1996-2009. President Obama has deported 2.4 Million Mexicans since taking office in 2008.

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Thursday, February 3, 2011

Napolitano: In Two Years We’ve Deported More Than Ever Before

By Julianne HingColorlines.ComFebruary 1, 2011

On Monday, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano told a gathering in El Paso what is not new news, but what is staggering every time it’s repeated. “In both fiscal years 2009 and 2010, Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed more illegal immigrants from our country than ever before, with more than 779,000 removals nationwide in the last two years,” Napolitano said, the AP reported. It’s certainly not the first time Napolitano’s boasted about her agency’s immigration enforcement.

“The Obama administration must prove it is tough on illegal immigrants and can secure the country’s porous borders if it is to stand a chance of passing a comprehensive overhaul of America’s tattered immigration system,” the AP piece says, reporting as fact a political argument that is actually in great dispute.

There is what the Obama administration thinks it must do, and there is what it refuses to use its power to actually change. The odds of comprehensive immigration reform happening this or last year were nil. And still the Obama administration pressed forward with ever more enforcement and expansion of Secure Communities, the new program that allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement to peer into the databases of local precincts of anyone who’s detained, fingerprinted, or arrested.

The Obama administration has steadfastly refused to consider administrative options, which are completely within the president’s power, to halt the mass deportations. According to Napolitano, among the deported have been people who were convicted of violent crimes. They make up a tiny percentage of the people who are ejected from the country every year. The majority have been convicted of no crime whatsoever. Those who did have criminal record had been found guilty of petty crimes and traffic violations.